Addiction to exercise?

HellonWheels said:

I'm wondering if I have this problem....I find on my off days, I feel down in the dumps, and do a lot of neg self talk for not working out that day....feeling guilty, lazy, etc....I find myself thinking I am a lazyass like the ppl in the malls if I take even one day off. WHY do I do this to myself? I cant help it!

I get a "rush" from working out (both on my stationary bike and my outdoor bikes), which I realy miss on my days off. I wasn't even taking any days off for a long time until my dr told me to take at least one or two days off per wk. I currently do 75 mins each morning at moderate resistance... 5 days/wk on a stationary, and then evening rides and weekend longer rides. Also some strength training.

Three yrs ago I started this as a habit, and now I find I can't "break" it even when I need to, like days off. I'm scared to death of ever needing surgery that may require me to take more than 1 or 2 days off from exercise. I get REALLY depressed when I have to take a day off, I find myself dreading days off.

But remember, by taking few days off, you let your body and mind heal. It makes you stronger the next time you go out. If you dont allow your body to heal, you may be headed for trouble as this can easily burn you out and therefore overtrain. And overtraining leads to illness and injury and a whole lot more problems.

Feeling guilty for not working out means you're not pushing hard enough on your previous workout, that's my take on that.

Good luck!

tanggoman said:

But remember, by taking few days off, you let your body and mind heal. It makes you stronger the next time you go out. If you dont allow your body to heal, you may be headed for trouble as this can easily burn you out and therefore overtrain. And overtraining leads to illness and injury and a whole lot more problems.

Feeling guilty for not working out means you're not pushing hard enough on your previous workout, that's my take on that.

Good luck!

Agreed. I love both mountain biking and bodybuilding, so I have settled for a happy compromise of three days a week to each (today is my off day). I tell myself I need to rest and I am usually OK with it, because I have learned the hard way that overtraining can lead to illness and injury. The muscles and tendons at the back of my left knee feel strained a bit right now, and if they are not much better by Saturday I may not ride. I hate that prospect, but I hate making an injury worse too!

My aunt is the same way, shes in her 50's and looks 20, BUT her doctor told her that the reason for her rigorous training was because she was a hpyocondriac(sp?)

Are you worried that something bad will happen to your body if you dont workout?

That may be an issue

GL

I would just say that rest is part of the exercise and getting in shape process. Whenever you start to feel lazy because you didn't work out, just take a look around you and be thankful that you worked out the day before.

As for the addiction, exercising is known to make you feel better, physically, mentally, and psychologically. When you don't exercise, you may feel like your're going to lose that edge. Realistically, you taking a day off is only going to help...

Thanks to everybody who replied, lots of good thoughts and comments. I think its true that I have to remind myself that rest is PART OF the working out!

HellonWheels said:

Thanks to everybody who replied, lots of good thoughts and comments. I think its true that I have to remind myself that rest is PART OF the working out!

sounds silly, but just go for a walk, you get a little excercise so it will make you feel better and it's non strenuous so your body will thank you.

kbs23 said:

sounds silly, but just go for a walk, you get a little excercise so it will make you feel better and it's non strenuous so your body will thank you.

Walking is a great idea on off-days. I am a little like you, and paid for it when I injured myself running. No doubt, exercise makes you feel better - and numerous studies have suggested that exercise can be just as effective as medication in treating anxiety and depression.... Just take those rest days... otherwise you may be forced to take weeks/months (years in my running case) to get over an injury.

Best,
I

I concur with the view about rest.
Rest is essential when training - no one, and I mean no one, can train properly
seven days a week, 365 days per year.
If you are training properly, you need to rest properly.

I suspect Hellonwheels, that your issue is one of routine.
I suspect you are training at a level which isn't taxing you to the extent,
whereby you're enforced to take a rest day.
A good tough training session would condition your body to protest by feeling tired.

All exercise requires your body to repair the exercised muscle.
If you're training every day - your muscles don't get a chance to repair.
Perhaps you need to train longer on specific days - so that rest will be enforced ?

I have read studies that show that rest is as important as physical training.
Lots of athletes sleep/doze after training sessions.
Steve Ovett the great British runner, used to train for two hours, come home and sleep for 4 hours and then train again.

[quote="limerickman"]I concur with the view about rest.
Rest is essential when training - no one, and I mean no one, can train properly
seven days a week, 365 days per year.
If you are training properly, you need to rest properly.

I suspect Hellonwheels, that your issue is one of routine.
I suspect you are training at a level which isn't taxing you to the extent,
whereby you're enforced to take a rest day.
A good tough training session would condition your body to protest by feeling tired.

All exercise requires your body to repair the exercised muscle.
If you're training every day - your muscles don't get a chance to repair.
Perhaps you need to train longer on specific days - so that rest will be enforced ?>>>

I do 75 mins a day, at moderate intensity...plus some strength training. As it is, most ppl think I do too much, so I doubt increasing would help!

For me, exercise boosts my mood among other things, which may be why on days off, I don't feel as good emotionally. I workout for a large number of reasons, most of which are probably not reasons other ppl do it....and this may be one reason why I dont relish days off.

I get the same feeling sometimes. You just have to remind yourself that rest is part of the training process.
🙄

I understand that your regimen imposes a great load on your body & personally wouldn't recommend to increase it unless strictly supervised and approved by a physician.

I had syself a medical routine check few weeks ago and wanted to have a heart stress done due in part that I do also have a similar "training" schedule : 80 mins of vigoroulsy pace (20 mps +) daily, some weight training & 40-50 miles every other weekend rides and my age (35 yo) . Funny thing is my cardiologist couldn't belive how thick my left heart side is (pumping side)

Seriously though you don't want to hurt yourself and resting is also as important as training. 😄

spinerguy said:

I understand that your regimen imposes a great load on your body & personally wouldn't recommend to increase it unless strictly supervised and approved by a physician.

I had syself a medical routine check few weeks ago and wanted to have a heart stress done due in part that I do also have a similar "training" schedule : 80 mins of vigoroulsy pace (20 mps +) daily, some weight training & 40-50 miles every other weekend rides and my age (35 yo) . Funny thing is my cardiologist couldn't belive how thick my left heart side is (pumping side)

Seriously though you don't want to hurt yourself and resting is also as important as training. 😄

Good advice, we do have a similar workout routine, thing is, I'm female and older than you (44). So maybe I'd better be careful.

HellonWheels said:

Good advice, we do have a similar workout routine, thing is, I'm female and older than you (44). So maybe I'd better be careful.

Hi HellonWheels.

I know I'm a little late on the discussion, but I'd like to add my two cents.

The only time your body gets stronger is when it's resting. The workout process is just the necessary step to stress the body so that it can become stronger after rest for the next time.

I've had to acknowledge this myself many a time. Personally I find exercise is the one thing in my life that I can control. If I put in the time, I get results. Nothing else in life appears to have as simple a formula. However that knowledge can lead me to be over ambitious. Even though I've never been bulimic, I can mildly relate to what it's like to be focused on concentrating on what's healthy and feeling overwhelming guilt towards having that chocolate bar in my belly. That guilt is in my head. It is my dedication to my commitments that make me feel like I should purge a piece of junk food when I'm sworn to being healthy.

As I say, I've never acted on this guilt, but I can understand the feeling. I've gone months at a time without missing a single workout and without eating a single bite of junk food. That's when I know I have to reevaluate. In fact, injury has normally helped me in my reevaluation stages. Dedication is great, but it's important to know when we're really showing signs of lowered dedication and when we're within our means to improve. Hence, I think that the more you focus on the knowledge that rest = improvement, the less "unhappy" you'll be the days you're not working out.

If I were to recommend anything I’d say, take four full consecutive days off every month and see how much stronger you feel on your following workout. The days off will be painful at first, but your performance on your next workout may help you feel better about yourself on the days that you’re not training.

Again, just my two cents.

Cheers.

I have been doing some reading on this subject and the "high"
one gets from training is as a result of Endorphins being released
ones brain.
When physical exercise takes place, our brains release these
hormones - endorphins - which induce a feeling of well being.
This feeling/sensation can become addictive.

The Scottish distance runner Liz McColgan has discussed at
length how she became addicted to this sensation and how
her training became obsessive to the point of illness.
McColgan became addicted to the endorphin sensation - her training
was simply a means to experiencing this "high".

limerickman said:

I have been doing some reading on this subject and the "high"
one gets from <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=training&v=56">training</a> is as a result of Endorphins being released
ones brain.
When physical exercise takes place, our brains release these
hormones - endorphins - which induce a feeling of well being.
This feeling/sensation can become addictive.

The Scottish distance runner Liz McColgan has discussed at
length how she became addicted to this sensation and how
her <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=training&v=56">training</a> became obsessive to the point of illness.
McColgan became addicted to the endorphin sensation - her training
was simply a means to experiencing this "high".

WOW do I read a lot of myself in what you said. YES the endorphin high is a MAJOR part of it for me, on rest days I feel depressed probably because I'm NOT getting that high. And since sex releases endorphins too, I notice that after sex I don't feel like working out (probably because I already got the high from the sex!)

HellonWheels said:

WOW do I read a lot of myself in what you said. YES the endorphin high is a MAJOR part of it for me, on rest days I feel depressed probably because I'm NOT getting that high. And since sex releases endorphins too, I notice that after sex I don't feel like working out (probably because I already got the high from the sex!)

But that is the danger - if one gets addicted to the "high" of training, as McColgan did, it then starts to affect ones health because you train and train
to keep that "high".
You end up training and training, exhausting yourself, to attain feeling good
(or "High"😉 but who knows what damage you do physically to achieve this.
This is what happened to the world class runner, McColgan.

I'm not a psychologist but I suspect that you "low" is not a low.
It is simply, not a "high".
So to feel "low" is perfectly normal - this is a state where the endorphins are not being released.

If this "low" is an acute problem for you - where you find that you are unable to work or socialise because your mood isn't "high" - it might be an idea to see
your physician.

limerickman said:

But that is the danger - if one gets addicted to the "high" of training, as McColgan did, it then starts to affect ones health because you train and train
to keep that "high".
You end up training and training, exhausting yourself, to attain feeling good
(or "High"😉 but who knows what damage you do physically to achieve this.
This is what happened to the world class runner, McColgan.

I'm not a psychologist but I suspect that you "low" is not a low.
It is simply, not a "high".
So to feel "low" is perfectly normal - this is a state where the endorphins are not being released.

If this "low" is an acute problem for you - where you find that you are unable to work or socialise because your mood isn't "high" - it might be an idea to see
your physician.

I think maybe I shoulkd reduce my workout a bit, and since sex also releases endorphins, maybe I just need to get laid more. 😄
I think my husband will be perfectly amenable to that.

Been there done that, due to over exercising and under eating i made my self ill. not only mentally but physically, since i was exercising so much and not eating anywhere enough calories to maintain my weight for my longer runs, loading didn't enter the equation until late on, my primary concern was how i felt on my feet if i felt heavy or looked heavy in my opinion then i would skip meals *(Anorexia) when i felt light on my feet i would cram in alsorts before runs a few hours before. Somedays my legs would feel flat exhausted and weak, okey! most people would probaly skip, but i found that using the weights for a few hours and bunging in a big meal they then felt good enough for me to head off out for a 5 to 10 mile run.

i was obsessed, i would do sit ups for hours after breakfast, i weight trained after dinner, cycled after tea then would run a little later on at nights, but while all my mates where out enjoying a few beers i would be out playing in the rain and the mud. But truthfully all it got me was the inability to walk for 14mths, due to over exercise and malnutrition i weakened my bones in my tibia and fibula leaving me with several fractures a number of sprains and strain and a dislocation that couldn't be re located until my bone density had improved.

now i try to eat sensibly and i also try to ensure that i have at leaste one day a week off so i don't get to suffer that again, but mainly i try to stick to training 2 to 3 times a week instead of 3 to 4 times a day.

closesupport said:

Been there done that, due to over exercising and under eating i made my self ill. not only mentally but physically, since i was exercising so much and not eating anywhere enough calories to maintain my weight for my longer runs, loading didn't enter the equation until late on, my primary concern was how i felt on my feet if i felt heavy or looked heavy in my opinion then i would skip meals *(Anorexia) when i felt light on my feet i would cram in alsorts before runs a few hours before. Somedays my legs would feel flat exhausted and weak, okey! most <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=people&v=56">people</a> would probaly skip, but i found that using the weights for a few hours and bunging in a big meal they then felt good enough for me to head off out for a 5 to 10 mile run.

i was obsessed, i would do sit ups for hours after breakfast, i weight trained after dinner, cycled after tea then would run a little later on at nights, but while all my mates where out enjoying a few beers i would be out playing in the rain and the mud. But truthfully all it got me was the inability to walk for 14mths, due to over exercise and malnutrition i weakened my bones in my tibia and fibula leaving me with several fractures a number of sprains and strain and a dislocation that couldn't be re located until my bone density had improved.

now i try to eat sensibly and i also try to ensure that i have at leaste one day a week off so i don't get to suffer that again, but mainly i try to stick to <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=training&v=56">training</a> 2 to 3 times a week instead of 3 to 4 times a day.

Wow...that's horrible what you went through! I don't workout near as much but what I do do was killing me. I don't think I mentioned this, but the last few weeks I have felt like [censored]...I dreaded getting out of bed at 5 to workout, and after I did manage to get thru it, I felt worse, like death reheated, as my mom used to say. I cut my workouts 15 mins short and felt like a heel for doing THAT. I was snappy and mean to everybody, during workouts my head would spin, the ceiling soun around, I got dizzy, couldnt recall the date or time, feeling horrid...and I felt sure I had some disease like <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=cancer&v=56">cancer</a>, <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=diabetes&v=56">diabetes</a>, etc

I went to my doctor who is also a cyclist ....he asked me lots of questions, and said, EAT MORE FOOD! ESPECIALLY CARBS! He said I was working out too intensely for what I was eating...thing is, intense exercise for me decreases my appetite. I'd get stomach growls but not eat because I didnt FEEL hungry. He told me exactly what to do.....big bowl of corn flakes an hr before workout, with a Powerbar Harvest....drink fruit juice while working out, then eat some more <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=food&v=56">food</a> after workout.

I did that today for the first <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=time&v=56">time</a> and the improvement was absolutely REMARKABLE. Like bringing someone back from the dead to life again. I'm about 20 lbs overweight still (I used to be much heavier), so when my stomach growled and I didnt feel hungry, I figured it would be okay not to eat because I assumed I didnt "need" extra since I had fat stores on me (lol)....was I wrong!